Christmas in pictures

The last few days have been very hectic, yet very, very special. Highlights include: Christmas Eve at Red Lobster, Christmas morning from Santa, going to see Annie on Christmas day (Thanks for the tickets, Santa), picking up LD from my sister's, going to the cabin, our friends joining us at the cabin for a night. It was an amazing few days! It was so good for our family. We love being together...and, two years in a row at the cabin....just might become a tradition! :)

Traditions

Today is Christmas Eve! :) As a family, we have many traditions that we have created together. I guess this is what makes a family. It is definitely what makes these holidays so special. I am so grateful that we have another Christmas Eve together as a family. What a great family I am blessed with! I am so excited for this evening...here are some of our traditions:

1. We go out to dinner (this year: Red Lobster!)
2. We go look at Christmas lights together.
3. We come home and read the Christmas story from Luke 2 while looking at the Nativity set with a candle.
4. We sing Christmas Hymns.
5. We sit in a circle and talk of why we love each member of our family.
6. We have family prayer.
7. We call Grandpa and he reads "Twas the Night Before Christmas."
8. We put up our stockings and put out cookies and milk for Santa.
9. The kids open one present each...as a preview! :)
10. (Then...we all go to bed...excited for more Christmas traditions to come tomorrow!)

This year we have added taking giftcards to the homeless and less fortunate...but I don't know when that will happen in the evening.

I love traditions. I love family. I love Christmas Eve. Most of all, though, I love my Savior, Jesus Christ.

Where to begin?

Again....it has been a long time since a post. -sigh- Maybe at some point I will get my life back together enough to be a faithful blogger. Since I haven't been, however, I have no idea where to begin. C's big belt test? The last day of school before Christmas break? K and DH's daddy-daughter date? An awesome Christmas present from a dear friend? I could go on and on. We are always busy, I just haven't been great at documenting it all!

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But, since this is the season of giving, I think I will begin with the most important gift of all...our Savior, Jesus Christ. Last night we had a wonderful Family Home Evening. We began with imagining that we were having a huge birthday party and all of our friends came carrying gifts, but at opening presents time, they all turned and gave them to each other and we didn't get any. We compared this a little to Christmas and how we celebrate Christ's birth, but sometimes we get too caught up in the gifts to each other, not to the Savior. We read Matthew 25: 35-40 and talked of how the gifts of service that we do to each other are gifts to the Savior. Then, we read 2 Nephi 2:6-8 (in the Book of Mormon) and talked of how we NEED the Savior to return back to Heavenly Father. There is no other way, but what He asks of us is a broken heart and a contrite spirit. These are other gifts we can give the Savior. Then, DH turned on some instrumental Christmas music and we wrote "Birthday Cards" to the Savior, including an individual "gift" that we were going to give Him this Christmas. We sealed the cards, tied them with ribbon and stuck them prominently on our tree. I hope that they remind us, as a family, what we need to remember this season: the greatest gift of all: Our Savior, Jesus Christ.

You know he's two when....

LD and I had quite a Friday last Friday. It all began right after I dropped the big kids off at school. I was doing dishes and he came running out to me...with no clothes! He had taken off his pajamas, socks, and diaper. He told me that he wanted to wear underwear. Well, now that he is two, it is time...but, I already decided I didn't want to deal with a newly potty-trained kid at the cabin, so, after Christmas is the plan.

Anyhow, you don't deny a kid that WANTS to wear underwear and go potty, do you? We were about to head out to work out and run errands, so I thought 5 minutes in underwear...I'll have him try to go potty, then get him dressed with a diaper and head out.

You can guess what happened! Less than five minutes later, he had peed and pooped. Lovely.

Next, on our errands trip, we were shopping. He first decided he wanted something that I had him put away. He laid down on the floor and took off his shoes and socks. So, I put them back on and put him up on the counter while I paid. So, he took off his shoes and chucked them across the room. Then, as we were leaving, he again laid down, took off his coat and his socks....all while I am trying to get out the door with my bags of purchases. It was not fun. -sigh- He really is two!

Ten Reasons Why Thanksgiving was Awesome!

Thanksgiving was so awesome this year. I LOVE my in-laws and they were in town with us! :) Here are ten reasons that this year ranks as probably the best ever!

1. LD had the cutest smile for Papi O....complete with a black bean beard and black bean hairgel!
2. It was just the seven of us for Thanksgiving: I was on my feet literally from 8 am to 5 pm cooking, but there was no stress of a time limit....just cooking. --sigh-- so low stress. :) Thanks to Mami R. for all her help!
3. C did an amazing karate demonstration for the family. His instructor was right...put on the pads and he turns into an animal.
4. We enjoyed the perfect weather the first few days with a gorgeous hike in the great outdoors.
5. We froze (my poor Southern body--you'd never know I grew up in Colorado--I freeze at 50 degrees) together with a front row seat at the parade of lights.
6. K was the beauty of the week with her gorgeous hair and awesome photo poses.
7. DH was off Wed-Sun! :) Hurray for family time.
8. Mami R. and Papi O. are so loving and sweet and great advise givers, as good parents should be! How blessed I feel to have them as my "parents!"
9. Papi O. cleaned and did projects around the house that I hadn't been able to get to! Thank-you, Papi!
10. I biffed it in the water gardens after church yesterday! It was hilarious...but I have a bruise 4" x 3" on my knee! Yuck. At least we will all remember it together. (Maybe not an "awesome" moment, but a memorable one, at least!)

• Bonus: The food was outstanding! We had such a great time eating together (but I gained like 5 pounds!)
• Bonus #2: LD missed his siblings so much that he asked for them all day long today. When we finally drove up to the school to pick them up, he shouted "Yay! Yay! Yay! K and C! Yay! Yay! Yay!"
• Bonus #3: After Thanksgiving sales were soooooooooo awesome and we got such great deals. Hurray! (Also low stress...we didn't have anything on our "list" that we couldn't live without so we were just enjoying the excitement....and we left at 6:15, not earlier!)

We definitely had a great time together. I am so blessed to have in-laws that I love so much. I cried and cried and cried as they left this morning. Back to one of my favorite quotes ..."The pain now is part of the happiness then." So true.

(Hopefully pictures are coming! They didn't work for me today.)

Thank goodness for company!

I know...you are all shocked. I finally posted. It has been a very busy (and a little bit tough) few weeks and, in the midst of it all, I really haven't felt like blogging. But, I would like to blog again....so I start by sharing how glad I am that DH's parents are here.

I really love them (a lot-I have such great in-laws)...but, that is not all....my house is spotless! Nothing like company coming to do the little projects that I've been putting off. The house is clean, clutter-free, and wearing new wall art! :)

Needless to say that in the non-blogging weeks, I wasn't as on top of my house as usual either, so having it clean is an amazing accomplishment! It feels so good.

Blessings of Bilingual Children

Today, I asked LD what he wanted for lunch after church and he cheerfully responded, "How about....ice cream!" After a politely told him "No" multiple times, he came back with, "How about...helado (Spanish for ice cream)!" How cute! He does this frequently...asks for what he wants in one language and if he doesn't get it, asks in the other!

Busy, Busy Fall

Life has been very good lately....just EXTREMELY busy. Blogger did something weird with the order of these photos, but....I will rearrange them and comment....I just wanted to finally get a post up! :) I guess you might be able to see why I've been so busy these last three weeks!

And...what is up with the huge spaces between photos? Sorry about all the scrolling!

Blessings Unmeasured

:) I am filled with happiness and gratitude and, for this moment, LIFE IS GOOD! :)

Comforting words and music

A good friend sent me this link awhile back when I was having a bad day. I was finally able to listen to it today. What power in this message! What comfort there is to know that Heavenly Father lives and loves us! How grateful I am to have a Father in Heaven that sends us little messages like this to buoy us up...whether it is a cold, raining, and depressing day (like today!) or whether we have other struggles to bring to Him. I hope this music uplifts you as much as it did me today! :)

Surprise!

DH has been very busy lately...seminar, camping with us, another seminar coming up...and so he has had to frequently shut down the clinic. I wanted to go to the local football game, but it just seemed impossible. Except....DH surprised me and rescheduled all his patients so that we could go. :) If you know DH at all, you know that this is a big sacrifice and I am so grateful.

Unfortunately, I had a feeling we would lose (and we were ranked in the top 10!). What I had no idea of is the way we would lose. We looked horrible on the field. The game was super boring...even the fans of the team that won looked bored, excited to win, but bored.

Then, we took a wrong turn and got lost on the way home. Then, we got pulled over for speeding in a residential area. Thankfully, the cop just gave us a warning and some directions on how to get home, but it still made for a long night.

So...was it worth the money for the tickets and the babysitter and missing an Enrichment activity? You bet. We were out doing something different together, but, most of all, it meant so much to me that DH planned this surprise even though it meant rescheduling patients. That is a blessing! :)

DH is gone...

and the party begins at our house! :)

DH has a seminar this weekend...all weekend...so we are playing it up. Tonight, the kids each got to invite two friends to sleepover (both ended up with only one...but they are still having a blast!). We are making homemade pizzas, playing, watching a movie, talking, playing....etc..

Then, tomorrow, it is my night and some of my friends that aren't doing dinner groups (too bad it is the same night) are coming over. Party at my house! :) I guess I won't miss DH as much as I thought I would. And, tomorrow is a very busy day, including C competing in a huge karate tournament. He is excited, but I am definitely nervous for him!

Then, DH comes home Sunday night and we leave to go camping as a family on Monday. :) Fun times.

Dead Computer!

I've never had a dead computer....until this weekend. We've had new ones and had to transfer files and that was hard enough...but this was a huge pain and STILL is a huge pain! UGH! Luckily I have a very good techie brother-in-law and he has extracted most of the information I need off the hard drive. There is still a LOT of things that have to be organized for the clinic, my work, my pictures, etc., but at least I have the Internet again! :)

So, at least for now, I am back! :)

(And...thank-goodness for online backups. They will save the day if we can't extract all of our info off our crashed hard drive. It will be some work to restore it...but I will not have lost everything!)

Flattered and Proud

C had a project due today at school. It was to recreate out of boxes and paper a building in our local community. I thought he might do the library, the school, our house, or even WalMart. Then he told me he'd decided and wanted to do the clinic (chiropractic clinic that we own).

It turned out so cute. I was excited for his choice, but when DH came home, saw the clinic, and found out that it was what C had chosen for his project, he was so flattered and C was so proud. It was a great moment.

Note: We covered up the name of the clinic with pink stickies...to keep identifying information private. Looks a little silly...but it works..

Archery

K gets to go to Activity Days (kind of like a girls' club for ages 8-11) twice a month. They get to learn all sorts of things...from the spiritual to the practical to the fun. It is great for them and they have a fantastic leader. Yesterday, she got to go and learn archery. I was jealous. I've always wanted to learn that! She had a blast. She has two really close friends and they got to ride down together, talking and making up stories. Then, they got to take turns shooting this bow and arrow. They each got 5 arrows. K didn't have any of them hit the target. She is so tiny and she said that holding the bow was very difficult. She also came home with a little blister on her hand...but, all in all she LOVED it. I am so grateful that she gets to have experiences like this: learning something new, away from me (she can be her own person!), learning to socialize and get along, etc.. What a blessing.

PS Thanks to Jay for sending me some pictures!